


He Likes it Hot, But He's So Cold

by Soaring_Hearts



Category: Borderlands, Tales from the Borderlands - Fandom, rhack
Genre: Borderlands 2, M/M, Tales from the Borderlands
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-16
Updated: 2015-06-16
Packaged: 2018-04-04 15:48:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4143486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Soaring_Hearts/pseuds/Soaring_Hearts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based in our modern day and age, Jack is the CEO of a international gun business known as Hyperion, while Rhys is the barista of the Starbucks next door to Jack's building. Now Jack likes his coffee hot, along with a few other special needs, but Rhys knows better to not get too close to this man. Or does he?</p>
            </blockquote>





	He Likes it Hot, But He's So Cold

It was a bright new day, and the Starbucks was surprisingly slow this morning as it opened, but Rhys knew the school girls who 'required' their early morning coffee for school would soon be here. Rhys opened up the Starbucks shop, his co-workers Vaughn and Yvette followed him in and prepared their stations for the soon to be influx of customers. Starbucks was always full of paying customers when it came to breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Rhys would never understand the need for coffee everyday, probably because just working at the place made him sick to the stomach.

Rhys was the barista at this Starbucks, he brought the customers their beverages. While Vaughn worked the cash registers and Yvette worked the coffee machines. "Get ready, here they come," Vaughn warned Rhys and Yvette, as he watched the front door, instantly seeing quite a few people heading towards the door to their Starbucks door. "Oh god," Rhys murmured, already feeling that sinking pain in his stomach as he saw those people. "Shut up Rhys, all you do is give them coffee, I have to make it all," Yvette hissed at Rhys, making him feel the sting for his choice of words.

The door was pushed open and at least 5 people entered, their wallets wide open and their orders already ready before they even reach the register. Vaughn hands instantly got to work, writing down each and every order in the register, and calling it out to Yvette, who was already speeding along to poor down each and every drink as quick as she could and as perfect as she could. Rhys prepared himself as Yvette started handing him drinks. "Okay, Donna?" Rhys called out the name, and was met with a large woman, who grabbed the coffee from his hands. 'She must be in a rush...' Rhys thought as he grudgingly stared as she grabbed her sugar and poured her cream and ran out of the store.

"Rhys! Give these cups to their customers!" Vaughn nudged Rhys hard in the back, which made him look away from the large woman. "Yeah right, sorry," Rhys apologized, grabbing other coffee cups and calling out the customers names and giving them their coffee. The Starbucks rush seemed to have calmed down a bit, no one else was entering, but a few customers set up their laptops in the corners already. "Woo, survived the morning rush," Vaughn pretended to wipe sweat off his brow, turning around to smile at his other two co-workers. They all shared a quiet laugh with each other, barely even hearing the door to their store open.

At the door stood a handsome man, who was mumbling so himself, something like,"I'm so tired..." Rhys was caught off guard by this man, much more caught off by him than he was with that large woman named Donna. This man was handsome, he had the looks that Rhys was into, he also had the demeanor too. "He's hot..." Rhys mumbled to himself, which made Vaughn and Yvette turn to look. Vaughn turned back around to the cash register as the man walked up to get his coffee. Vaughn grabbed a coffee cup to write down the man's order, but Rhys quickly stole the cup and the marker from him and prepared to write for him instead. "Um, what will you have?" Rhys asked, giving Vaughn a sideways smile, hoping he wouldn't mind. Vaughn frowned, but he allowed the action anyway. The man looked at Rhys for a moment and say, "I'll have a cafe mocha and for my order, put down Jack." Rhys smiled as he wrote down the man's name on to the cup along with his order. "Alright sir," Rhys looked up at Jack his smile ever relevant. Jack only nodded and went to sit down at one of the tables. Rhys seemed to smile even more while he figured out a plan to tell the man that he thought he was incredibly hot. He took the sharpie marker and started marking out certain words to the caution hot message on the sleeve of the cup. The caution message originally read "Caution, the beverage you're about to enjoy is extremely hot," but when Rhys was done marking it up, it said,"Caution, you're extremely hot." He quickly wrote, "Secret message!" And wrote an arrow to the caution message on the bottom of the sleeve before handing the cup to Yvette. Yvette read the message and rolled her eyes, "You're hopeless." She went to work on creating Rhys's new found crush's mocha. Rhys watched her in anticipation, he really couldn't wait to see Jack read his message. Yvette put on the whip cream and the chocolate syrup, and handed the cup over to Rhys and said, "Don't over react." Rhys smiled, but he could already feel nervousness warping his smile.

Rhys walked over to the counter, looking at his message really quickly before calling out, "Jack?" He could hear his voice crack slightly which made his face flush red. Jack rose from his seat and walked over to Rhys and grabbed his cup from him, "Thanks kiddo." Rhys watched him, trying his hardest to look like he wasn't. He enjoyed how great Jack looked in a white dress shirt, it was tightly fit around his semi-muscular body, and when Jack walked up, Rhys noticed that his eyes were two different colors. Blue and green. "God he's beautiful," Rhys mumbled, his face was bright red as fantasies started flowing through his head. He barely even noticed that Jack had read his message on his cup. Rhys looked back up at Jack, and noticed that he had his hand over his mouth, but Rhys could see a clear smile on his face. "Hey kid?" Jack turned to look at Rhys, he had a huge happy smile on his face, "Did you write this?" Rhys smiled widely, and nodded eagerly,"Yeah I did." Jack seemed to look him up and down before responding,"Y'know, now that I'm awake, thanks to this coffee. You're actually really cute."

'Cute?' Rhys thought, his face burned red and his smile was shaky. "I-i..." Rhys tried to talk to Jack, but he honestly didn't know how to respond to him. He never expected such a response from him, because usually when Rhys tries to flirt with customers they just give him a weird look and down their coffee and leave. "Look kiddo, if you want to go out on a date, here's my card. Call me when you're off of work," Jack broke into Rhys's thoughts and took a small card out of his pocket and wrote down something on the back. Rhys shyly walked out from behind the counter and towards Jack so he could grab the card. Jack handed Rhys the card and gave him a wide grin,"My lines are always open." Rhys blushed,"I-i, uh, okay, I'll call you after work, which is uh at 7:00."

"Great, can't wait for your call. Well I've got to go, or else I'll be late," Jack got up from his seat and patted Rhys on the shoulder before heading towards the door to leave. Rhys just held Jack's card close to his chest and watched him leave.

\--

The time read 7:00, and it was time for Rhys's shift to end. Vaughn and Yvette were also preparing to leave as well, it was up to Rhys to lock down the shop. He waved and Yvette and Vaughn left the shop and headed towards their cars. Rhys cleaned up as best he could by himself and prepared to officially close the store down at it's early 7:00 closing time. He wiped the counters clean and checked the register. Once that was done and everything was in order, Rhys took out the card he received from Jack, and read the message on the back, 'Don't forget to call me kitten!' Rhys could feel his face flush red when he read those finely written words. "Oh god he's cute too..." Rhys covered his face with his hands, feeling the card against his cheek. He stayed like that for a little bit, before he realized how dumb he must've looked. He took out his phone and typed in Jack's number, as it rang Rhys turned off the main lights to the store and walked over of the door, turning only to lock to the door with his key. "Hello?" Jack's voice came from Rhys's phone, surprising him by how sexy he sounded. "H-hi, it's um Rhys, from this morning at the Starbucks," Rhys responded shyly, as he walked down the street. "Oh hey, I didn't catch your name before I had to leave for work. So Rhys is it? How did Starbucks get a cutie like you as it's barista?" Jack's voice was soft and sweet, laced with something else, but Rhys was far too swept up in the idea of hooking up with this man to even notice what it was. "I-I guess they didn't really care about what I looked like, just how well I worked," Rhys's voice stuttered slightly, making him far more aware of how shy he was being.

"Hey, do you want to go get a drink?" Jack asked, being pretty blunt, but Rhys didn't mind, he was more so surprised that Jack would ask him out on a date so quick. Or if he should even consider a drink a date. "Sure! Where do you want to go?" Rhys asked, reaching his car. His car was a black Mazda 6, it looked normal among the other cars. He pulled out his car keys and unlocked it. "How about Red Vega Bar?" Jack responded, just after Rhys sat down inside his car and closed the door. "Sounds cool, um, meet you there in 30 or so?" Rhys asked, not sure when Jack could meet him. "Yeah, I'll be there shortly." Jack reassured, his voice a bit breathy, as Rhys heard extra voices in the background. "Hey, I have to go. I have to do something real quick before I head out," Jack told Rhys, just before he hung up the phone. "I- um... Oh okay, well I guess I'll just drive straight there then..." Rhys mumbled to himself as he sat his phone down in a cup holder in between the two front seats of his car. He looked behind him really quickly before putting the key into the ignition and turning on the car. Rhys looked around himself again, before pulling out of his parking space and out on to the streets. 

The car ride was quiet, since Rhys decided the drive would be far too short to even bother setting up music to play, and Rhys was right, the Red Vega Bar was just a few blocks down from where he worked. “Okay cool...” Rhys saw the bar, and pulled in to find a place to park. He pulled into a place that was on the side of the establishment and turned off the ignition. Rhys pulled the handle of his door and pushed it open and climbed out. With the closing sound of the door, Rhys walked around the building towards the door of the bar, and that's where he saw him. Jack. 

Jack was leaning against a wooden pillar that held up a part of the roofing in front of the door. He seemed lost in his thoughts as Rhys approached him, he only snapped out of them when Rhys called out to him, “Hey Jack!” Jack blinked a few times before looking at Rhys and waving, giving him a friendly smile, “Hey kiddo.”

“Forget my name already?” Rhys jokingly raised an eyebrow and grinned as he reached Jack. “Oh? No, I just call most people kiddo. Your name is Rhys,” Jack reassured Rhys, looking like he was still somewhere lost in his thoughts. “Hey, are you okay?” Rhys asked, noticing that Jack kept looking elsewhere at something, or more over he looked tired. Jack looked at Rhys and shook his head, “No no, i'm fine, just. Can we change up the plans? Um, can we go to my place?” Jack asked, looking at Rhys with somewhat paranoid looking eyes, which made Rhys confused. “Uh, okay sure I guess,” Rhys responded, his confusion was clearly heard in his voice, which made Jack aware that he would need to explain why the change of plans. “I'll tell you why when we get there okay?” Jack reassured Rhys, giving him a sweet smile before walking past him, “Okay follow my car! And if you get lost you have my number!” 

Rhys nodded, feeling a strange feeling in his chest as he watched Jack walk away towards his car. “Oh my god, what the hell am I doing?” Rhys mumbled, feeling his face get hot and his thoughts getting flustered. He shook his head quickly and walked back to his own car and started it, he couldn't have Jack leave him behind thinking that he was following. He turned on his car and pulled out of his parking place, seeing Jack do the same with his own car. 

Rhys pulled up behind Jack and prepared to follow that handsome man towards wherever he lived. This was already turning out to be one weird as hell date.

Rhys followed Jack's car, taking him out of the more bustling part of the city and towards a more quiet hospitable part of the city. He saw large beautiful houses, which instantly made Rhys think that Jack was a rich man. “What the hell does he do?” Rhys asked himself, looking around the neighborhood he pulled into, seeing nothing but giant luxurious houses. Rhys watched Jack pull into the driveway of one of the houses, and Rhys follow suit, parking on the curb of the house since he didn't know if he should park on the driveway or not.

Rhys turned off his car and climbed out of it, looking only at the sheer size of the house that Jack lived in. “Seriously... What the hell...” Rhys whispered under his breath, completely in awe. Jack stepped out of his car, which was a new model of Tesla, but Rhys didn't know the actual name of the car, and he called out to Rhys, “Hey dumb-dumb, come on!” Jack's slightly rude remark made Rhys stop looking at the house and at him with a big ugly frown. “Rude,” Rhys muttered, walking over to Jack, who had walked over to his door and took out his keys from his pocket. He inserted the key and turned it. Jack took out the keys and opened the door, revealing the pretty interior of his home. “Wow..” Rhys breathed out, even more in awe of how the place looked. Never had he ever seen someone living in a place like this, well, unless they were in a TV show or movie.

“Well? Come in,” Jack smiled, stepping into his home and holding the door open for Rhys. Rhys gladly stepped in, giving Jack an awkward smile before looking around at his immediate surroundings. The first thing Rhys saw was a wide open floor plan of the living room and the kitchen, with a back door leading outside to the back yard. He saw stairs off to the right of the door that lead up to a floor just above. There was balcony hanging over the living room from the second floor. The walls were painted a light bluish grey tone, that reminded Rhys of the rain, while the trimmings were painted white. The floors were made of a dark brown wood that worked very well with the rain colored walls, and the furniture was a off-white tan sofa and black wooden corner tables with a black table in front of the sofa. As if it was the center piece, there was a large no wiring flat screen tv that hung on the wall in the front of the room.

Rhys noticed a flooring change when he approached the kitchen, instead of continuing the dark brown wood, the floors changed to stone grey tile, aand the walls were a light blue instead of the rain color. The counters were white granite with lightning-like black running throughout it, giving it a dramatic look. The appliances were stainless steel and freshly cleaned, which made Rhys start to think Jack was a clean freak. “You've got a remarkable place, everything is clean and amazingly decorated,” Rhys smiled, still in awe of how beautiful it was. “Yeah, you can thank my interior decorator Mox for that...” Jack replied, his voice trailing off in an awkward sense, which made Rhys look at him with a side ways look. “Oh, I um, I forgot to ask, um, why did we have to come to your place?” Rhys asked, though he was getting a kinda of awkward stale feeling from Jack at the moment, especially after he just investigated the first floor of his house.

“Yeah that... Um, so yeah, that interior decorator, Mox, I mentioned... Me and her had a little flame not too long ago. She threatened to kill me and ruin my house so I put a restraining order on her, and surprisingly enough Mox actually runs that new bar, Red Vega,” Jack sighed, giving Rhys an awkward smile as he ran his hand through his hair. 

“O-oh,” Rhys replied, not entirely sure what to say. But who would have to something to say to someone who they just met today? Not Rhys, that's for sure. “Um, just sit down and i'll get us a few beers, you like beer right?” Jack asked, trying to make an effort to actually make it seem like they were on a date, even though they were at his house. Rhys only nodded, and that was enough to make Jack rush off into the kitchen and into one of his cabinets. Rhys sat down on the off-white tan sofa, and waited for Jack to return with the beverages. Rhys knew it didn't take much to get himself drunk, so he would need to watch how much he drinks.

Jack walked out of the kitchen, holding a big bottle of Rogue XS Old Crustacean and tow empty glasses, now Rhys didn't know the alcohol content of this, but he certainly heard that it was a good beer. “ever had this?” Jack asked Rhys as he sat down on the couch next to him, placing the black bottle of beer down on the table, along with the two glasses he brought for them. “Nope, I haven't had it, but I heard it tasted really good,” Rhys responded, staring at the bottle with a smile of anticipation. He wanted to try it, Yvette said it smelled like caramel and oranges, and odd pair put together, but still, he wanted to try it. Jack smiled at how Rhys looked at the bottle, before turning and pulling the metal piece that held the cap on to the bottle. Jack picked up the bottle and started gently pouring the beer into their glasses, careful to not create too much foam on the top of the dark beer.

When Jack was done pouring, he put down the bottle and handed Rhys his glass. Rhys eagerly took his glass and smelled the beer, noticing the strong hints of citrus and caramel, just like Yvette said. Rhys then took a sip. He tasted caramel and toffee, and a smoky flavor, which he guessed was from the barrels they brewed the beer in. He swallowed, noticing that it was smooth enough, but there were hops in it. Rhys wasn't much of a hoppy beer person, but it tasted too good to even care about the hops in it. Rhys turned towards Jack, who was sitting there and watching him drink his beer. “W-why are you looking at me?” Rhys asked, feeling his face get red with embarrassment. “You just look cute when you're examining something,” Jack murmured in a sweet voice, that made Rhys shy away back to drinking his beer. 

He didn't even give Jack a response, he just continued sipping his beer, hoping that Jack wouldn't keep watching him. Jack eventually pulled his eyes off of Rhys and picked up his own glass and started drinking from it.

It didn't take Rhys long to finish his first cup of beer, which actually surprised Jack. He figured that Rhys would actually enjoy the beer rather than finish it within five minutes. Jack refilled Rhys's glass nonetheless. “Enjoy this glass this time,” Jack looked at Rhys with a semi-serious face while he handed the younger man his glass. “Yeah yeah whatever big boss man,” Rhys mumbled, making Jack notice that Rhys could not hold his liquor, even with a beer that didn't have too much of an alcohol content to make someone drunk with one cup. Rhys took the cup away from Jack and started drinking it, not with sips, but with gulps. “Rhys!” Jack said in a loud voice, trying to grab for the cup, but Rhys playfully avoided him as he chugged down the rest of the glass.

“Rhys what the hell?!” Jack yelled, taking the cup away from the younger man and putting it down on the table. Rhys's face was blushed red as he looked at Jack, “What...? You got a problem with me drinking your good beer..?” Jack sighed loudly, he could hear Rhys slurring his words already. This definitely wasn't looking good for him. “You're a train wreck for a first date Rhys,” Jack sighed again, standing up to put away the beer, in which Rhys responded with whines. “Awww, don't go Jack,” Rhys whined, looking at Jack as he picked up the bottle and glasses again and headed off to the kitchen. “I'll be back sweetheart, don't worry,” Jack replied, putting the two glasses in the sink and putting his bottle of beer in the fridge, making sure to close the top bottle with the cap.

Jack returned, only to see that Rhys was trying to undress. Jack quickly ran over and forced Rhys to keep his clothing on, “Hey! Keep your damn clothing on!” He buttoned back up the dress shirt rhys was wearing, while Rhys tried to unbutton Jack's shirt. “Kid stop! This isn't the time for this! We just freaking met!” Jack exclaimed, knocking Rhys's sheepish hands away from his shirt. Rhys put on a pouty face, and sat there as Jack finished buttoning up Rhys shirt. “ Good, now be a good boy and quit trying to get frisky on the first date,” Jack sighed, looking at Rhys, taking a mental note that Rhys was a sexual deviant when it came to drinking. “Well, you'll be one hell of a fun drinking partner,” Jack grinned, giving Rhys a wink. 

Jack looked at his left wrist where his watch sat, and saw that it was 9:00pm. “Well... I can't send you home like this, guess you'll just have to sleep on my couch,” Jack sighed, putting his hands on his waist as he looked at Rhys who just sat there looking at Jack with a puppy face. “Just take off your shoes, i'll bring you down some covers,” Jack pointed at Rhys's shoes, before walking towards the stairs and headed up to the second floor.

Rhys took of his shoes and threw them near the door, too under the influence to even care about where they bounced when they hit the floor. Jack walked back down the stairs, holding a white blanket and a pillow. He sighed loudly, when he saw Rhys's shoes in two different places by the door. Jack walked past them and over to Rhys. “Okay big boy, lay down,” Jack grinned, and Rhys obediantly complied. “Lift up your head,” He said, kneeling down to put the pillow underneath Rhys's head. He lifted it up and put it back down when he felt the plush cushion under his head. Jack carefully placed the blanket over Rhys and tucked him in. “Good night Rhys,” Jack smiled, patting the younger man on the shoulder before trying to leave.

“Wait!” Rhys called, a slight whine in his voice, “What about a good night kiss?” 

“What're you five?” Jack frowned, turning around to face him. Rhys only responded with a loud whine and a puppy dog look. “Oh my god, fine,” Jack rolled his eyes and walked back over to Rhys, and bent over to kiss the younger man on the forehead, only Rhys didn't want a kiss on the forehead. Rhys moved his face just enough to kiss Jack on the lips. Jack pulled away, his eyes wide with shock. He never expected to kiss the boy on the lips this quick, and especially not when he was drunk and wouldn't remember it. 

“What the hell Rhys?” Jack asked, holding his finger to his lips. Rhys smiled at him sheepishly and replied with, “I asked for a good night kiss, and you gave me it.”


End file.
